Japan and India held their first joint air drills in an area outside of Tokyo as both countries step up military exercises with other countries amid worries about China’s assertiveness.
About four F-2 and four F-15 fighters are expected to take part in the drills that started Monday and will run through around Jan. 26 at an airbase in Ibaraki prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, Japan’s Defense Ministry said. While the two have trained together before in other countries, this is the first one-on-one training of its sort, it said.
The exercise comes as Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida completed a trip this month to Italy, the U.K., Canada and the U.S. to bolster his country’s alliances to help deter China. Japan is also a member of the Quad grouping that includes India, Australia and the US and is seen as a check on Beijing’s assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific.
